(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for splitting a light beam.
Definitions: In the propagation direction of the light beam or laser radiation signifies the mean propagation direction of the light beam or the laser radiation, in particular when this is not a plane wave, or is at least partially divergent or convergent. Unless otherwise expressly specified, light beam, subbeam or beam does not signify an idealized beam of geometric optics, but a real light beam such as, for example, a laser beam with a Ganssien profile or a modified Ganssien profile that has an extended beam cross section not an infinitesimally small one.
2) Description of Related Art
The splitting of a light beam such as, for example, a laser beam of a high energy laser, into a plurality of subbeams is frequently performed in the prior art by polarization beam splitters. These have a particular disadvantage in that they can only reasonably be used given an incident light beam with a defined polarization. If a non-polarized laser beam is to be split into a number of subbeams of equal intensity, said laser beam must be polarized before being split by polarization filters, and this causes substantial power losses.
The splitting of a light beam by a plurality of geometric beam splitters such as mirrors can cause undesired refraction phenomena.